COVID-19 News from Around the Web

Each COVID-19 death in the United States leaves an average of nine close family members to grieve, researchers say. With more than 137,000 deaths so far in the pandemic, that means about 1.2 million Americans have lost a grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse, child or other close relative. "In just a few short months, over 1 million Americans have experienced an irreplaceable loss that not only leaves them grieving and possibly traumatized but may come with long-lasting health and economic consequences for themselves and others in their family," study co-author Emily Smith-Greenaway said in a news release from the University of Southern California. She is an associate professor of sociology and spatial sciences at USC's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Lead author Ashton Verdery predicted the impact on families will be long-lasting. "Our results show that these impacts will be substantial, they'll affect people at all ages, and they may exacerbate existing inequalities in bereavement and social support," said Verdery, an associate professor of sociology, demography and social data analytics at Penn State University. Some people experience serious and long-term mental health problems after a death in the family, including major depression and anxiety. Bereavement can also lead to physical health problems, the researchers noted. The risk is higher when a family member dies unexpectedly, as is common during the pandemic. "In the news cycle, the emphasis is on tracking the total number of lives lost, but what's missing is how these premature deaths reflect in family systems," Smith-Greenaway said. "What about the numerous loved ones left behind?" The study was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The United States shattered its daily record for coronavirus infections on Thursday, reporting more than 77,000 new cases as the number of deaths in a 24-hour period rose by nearly 1,000, according to a Reuters tally. The loss of 969 lives was the biggest increase since June 10, with Florida, South Carolina and Texas all reporting their biggest one-day spikes on Thursday. More than 138,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, a toll that experts warn will likely surge following recent record spikes in case numbers and an alarming rise in hospitalizations in many states. The hardest-hit areas in Texas and Arizona are running out of places to store bodies as their morgues fill up and are bringing in coolers and refrigerated trailers.

The CDC will not release a set of documents this week aimed at giving schools advice on how to reopen to students after coronavirus shutdowns, NPR has learned. Instead, the full set will be published before the end of the month, a CDC spokesperson says. … President Trump has emphasized that he wants to see schools reopen their classrooms in the fall, but many teachers and parents have balked, concerned that children would spread the virus and get sick themselves. Trump complained on Twitter that the CDC's existing guidance was "too tough."

Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration went to court Thursday seeking to block Atlanta from enacting coronavirus restrictions and requiring residents to wear masks, setting up a legal showdown between the state and local governments over efforts to contain the disease. The state filed a lawsuit challenging Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ July 10 decision to revert to “phase one” guidelines that push restaurants to close dining rooms and urge residents to leave home only for essential trips. It also casts the city’s new mask requirements as “void and unenforceable.”

The spread of the coronavirus surged unabated in hot spots around the U.S. on Thursday, with one city in South Carolina urging people to pray it into submission, a hospital in Texas bringing in military medical personnel and funeral morgues running out of space in Phoenix. Record numbers of cases and deaths were popping up throughout the country. Texas reported 129 new deaths Thursday, and a third of the more than 3,400 COVID-19 fatalities registered there since the pandemic began were reported in the first two weeks of July alone. Health officials also reported more than 10,000 confirmed new cases for the third straight day.

Only one in four Americans think it is safe for public schools to reopen this fall as U.S. coronavirus cases climb, and four in 10 parents said they would likely keep their children home if classes resume, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows. The July 14-15 national online poll was conducted as the country’s 13,000 school districts grapple with how to safely resume instruction after closing in the spring as infections spread. … Just 26% of American adults said they thought it was safe for schools in their community to bring students back. Another 55% felt they were not safe, and 19% were not sure. The response was split along party lines: Half of Republicans said they thought schools were safe, compared with only one in 10 Democrats.

India on Friday said it had surpassed 1 million cases, third only to the United States and Brazil, with more than 25,000 deaths. That followed Brazil’s announcement Thursday evening that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases and 76,000 deaths — 1,000 fatalities a day, on average, since late May on a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward. India’s grim milestone drove home concerns over the country’s readiness to deal with an inevitable surge that could overwhelm hospitals and test the country’s feeble health care system.

The Labor Department said in its weekly assessment Thursday that 1.3 million more American workers have filed for unemployment benefits. The report said jobless claims increased by precisely 1,300,000 by the end of last week, a decrease of 10,000 claims. The department said the unemployment rate was 11.9% Thursday's report also revised down last week's report by 4,000 claims. Most analysts had expected 1.25 million new claims. Thursday marked the 15th consecutive week initial claims declined. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 50 million U.S. workers have filed for unemployment although many have since returned to jobs. Thursday's report said continuing claims, which lag initial claims by one week, were at 17.3 million.

If hospitalizations continue to rise, health care workers in Arizona, Texas, and California fear they’ll be completely overwhelmed. With Covid-19 hospitalizations steadily approaching a record high in the US, states like Arizona have activated emergency plans and requested refrigerated trucks to prepare for overflow at morgues. Doctors there say packed emergency rooms and ICUs are forcing them to prioritize the sickest patients, leaving other ill patients to deteriorate while waiting for care they’d ordinarily receive right away. Hospitals in hot spots across the country are expanding and even maxing out their staff, equipment, and beds, with doctors warning that the worst-case scenario of hospital resources being overwhelmed is on the horizon if their states don’t get better control of the coronavirus. “With Covid, a lot of times people who aren’t sick enough yet get pushed to the back, and then they can become really, really sick unfortunately because we were focusing our efforts on the people who are on the brink of death,” an emergency room doctor at the Banner Health system in the Phoenix metro area, who asked to go unnamed fearing retaliation from his employer, told Vox. Other doctors in Arizona, where 88 percent of hospital beds statewide were in use Tuesday, say the scarcity of resources means they’ll soon be rationing medical care, as doctors in Italy were forced to do.

California, Arizona, Texas and Florida together reported about 36,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday as restrictions aimed at combating the spread of the pandemic took hold in the United States and around the world in an unsettling sign reminiscent of the dark days of April.The soaring counts of confirmed infections and a mounting death toll led the mayor of Los Angeles to declare that the nation’s second-largest city is on the verge of resorting to a shutdown of all but essential businesses. More school districts made plans to start the fall semester without on-site instruction, and the 2021 Rose Parade in California was canceled. Other events went ahead undeterred. Thousands of auto-racing fans gathered at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee for a NASCAR event. Officials allowed 30,000 at the track, and the event marked the largest sporting event since the pandemic began four months ago. Disney World moved forward with the rolling opening of its Florida theme parks. California, Arizona, Florida and Texas reported a total of more than 450 new deaths. Alabama reported a pandemic-high one-day total of 40 deaths, and officials said the state will begin requiring face masks. In Texas, which again set a record for confirmed new cases, with nearly 10,800, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has increasingly emphasized face coverings as the way to avoid another lockdown. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock required masks at indoor public spaces and at larger outdoor gatherings in counties where four or more people are known to have COVID-19. The Democrat’s order came as the state reported a record number of new confirmed cases. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine, who has faced criticism from fellow Republicans over business closures, gave a televised address with an emotional appeal to residents to make sacrifices to protect their neighbors. But he stopped short of mandating masks. Among the sternest measures were in New York, where Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo added to a list totaling 22 states whose visitors will be required to quarantine for two weeks if they visit the tri-state region. Out-of-state travelers arriving in New York airports from those states face a $2,000 fine and a mandatory quarantine order if they fail to fill out a tracing form.

Coronavirus cases have surged to record levels in the Los Angeles area, putting the nation’s largest county in “an alarming and dangerous phase” that if not reversed could overwhelm intensive care units and usher in more sweeping closures, health officials said Wednesday. The situation is so uncertain organizers of the 2021 Rose Parade in Pasadena canceled the New Year’s Day tradition for the first time in 75 years out of concern that even six months from now infections could spread among participants and the hundreds of thousands who line the route. That move came two days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom shut bars and indoor dining statewide, and ordered closures of hair salons, gyms, malls and other indoor businesses in Los Angeles and other counties experiencing the most significant surge of virus cases. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti warned authorities were “on the verge” of resorting to shutting down all but essential businesses.Statewide figures reported Wednesday confirmed 11,126 additional cases of the virus on Tuesday and 140 deaths, the second-highest one-day totals. Los Angeles County, home to a quarter of the state’s population, reported 2,758 more confirmed cases and 44 deaths. The county’s overall death total is just under 4,000 — well over half California’s total of about 7,200.